Living Systems: Innovative Materials and Technologies for Landscape Architecture

Living Systems surveys a wide array of innovative approaches to material technologies within the field of landscape architecture. The selected projects and materials exhibit a contemporary demand for technological landscapes and the collaboration between designers, engineers, scientists and ecologists. The book’s language proposes a synthesis between technology and theory, and redefines the conventional boundaries of landscape materiality by focusing on its dynamic attributes, such as: growth, flow, metabolism, climate, and atmospheric phenomena.

Projects and materials are cross-referenced within the authors’ new categorization system, which focuses on performance criteria, processes, and properties. Each of the 36 international projects and 23 material technologies is presented with drawing details and construction photographs. A description of key processes and adaptive qualities provides an analysis of the various complex systems featured, such as vertical growth structures, flood prevention, stormwater infiltration, erosion control, and the integration of digital media to communicate, monitor, and provide interactive environments.